Transcript of Video
I’m Russell Libby with Northwoods Urology of Texas and today, I wanna talk a little bit about kidney stone prevention. I see patients often in the ER or my clinic often for having kidney stone events, meaning they have flank pain, sometimes have to pass those stones, sometimes have to have surgery for those stones, but after the stone passes or the stone’s removed, we really need to sit down and have a thoughtful discussion as to why you’re forming kidney stones and what we can do going forward to prevent those stones from reforming.
So, I’d like to just clarify, I see people of all ages in my clinic. If you’re young and you get kidney stones, there may be a different reason for forming stones if you’re younger than 30 years old or versus a patient who may be older and forming kidney stones. The number one way we can decrease kidney stone formation is by simply drinking a lot of water. The American Urologic Association recognized this as being pretty much at the top of the list. In addition to drinking more water, changing our dietary habits. Maybe we’re eating less animal protein, maybe we’re eating less sodium, maybe we’re incorporating citric acid in the form of lemon juice or medications to help buffer the urine, so that we don’t form stones more frequently.
On a case-by-case basis, we really need to evaluate why you’re forming kidney stones. Typically, what I would do is I would bring ya into clinic and talk to you about, you know, the causes of kidney stones and then, we’d actually kind of move to finding out why you specifically form stones by going over your dietary history, getting some lab tests, as well as a 24-hour urine, where you basically pee into a container for 24 hours. Then, we look at every different metabolite in the urine and evaluate that with your lab tests, your blood tests and we come up with a treatment plan for you.
So, I’m glad that you tuned in today. We’ve talked a little bit about kidney stone prevention. There are other things that we could talk about regarding kidney stone prevention, but if you wanna hear more about that, you’re gonna have to come see me. So, visit us at northwoodsurology.com or call us at 281-404-3000. I’d be happy to discuss.